


3 Adventures Jaime and Ted Have Had (Shut Up; They Have Too)

by Perpetual Motion (perpetfic)



Category: Blue Beetle (Comic), DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Blue Beetle - Freeform, Gen, Jaime Reyes - Freeform, Ted Kord - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-01
Updated: 2011-04-01
Packaged: 2017-10-17 10:34:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/175952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perpetfic/pseuds/Perpetual%20Motion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exactly what it says on the tin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	3 Adventures Jaime and Ted Have Had (Shut Up; They Have Too)

**Author's Note:**

> This one's all for me, folks. I hope you enjoy!

**Coming Soon to El Paso: Kord Enterprises!**  
The construction site should have had a sign, Jaime thought. "Wanted: Drunk teenagers to be dumbasses," he muttered to himself as he flew around the building framework looking for any trouble. "Wanted: Drug dealers who aren't happy doing their business in an alley. Wanted—"

"Crazy superhero to mumble to himself," said a voice behind him. "Inquire within your own head."

Jaime spun around, the scarab scolding him for playing with his equilibrium. He looked left, then right, then up. Two stories higher, sitting on a beam like it was a park bench, was Blue Beetle.

 _Don't call him Ted. Don't call him Ted._ "You're a long way from your usual haunts," Jaime said. Even as he said it, he knew it didn't sound cool. It never did when his voice rose mid-sentence. "Are we going to have the ceremonial meeting battle?"

"Nah." Ted swung down from the beam he was on to beam that put him at eye level with Jaime. "Just checking on the brand usage."

"Brand usage?"

Ted tapped his chest, right on the Beetle outline. "Well, when a superhero hears he's got a legacy, said superhero likes to check in and make sure the name isn't getting tarnished."

"I've been doing this for two years," Jaime said. It came out more defensive than he meant it to. "I think I've got it,” he added, trying to sound less like he felt like he was about to get scolded.

Ted's mouth tightened. "Believe me, kid, I'd have checked up on you sooner, but there were some issues."

Jaime flinched at that. Ted was back from the dead. Right. "I didn't mean—"

"I like the mouthiness," Ted interrupted. "That's definitely part of the legacy." He grinned, and Jaime was able to see the honest amusement in his eyes even through the goggles. "Not sure I'm cool with my follow-up being able to fly when I can't, though. That's kind of a bummer."

"I also have lasers," Jaime added. "And cannons."

Ted looked down at himself. "I am officially last year's model."

Jaime didn't say anything for a second, not sure what the comeback was when his mentor from beyond the grave was standing in front of him making jokes about being out-of-date. He felt himself grinning. "Man, I'm glad you're back."

Ted's head snapped up. "You don't even know me."

"Yeah, but I have so many questions."

"Your tech is higher than mine."

"And you think that makes this easier?" Jaime gestured to himself, ignoring the grumbling from the scarab that they had bad guys to blow up. "I'm still not sure how most of this works, and you—you couldn't use it, and you turned around and made all this super-cool stuff. Do you know how bad I wanted the Bug? And Booster wouldn't let me have it. Said my first car wasn’t going to be a one-of-a-kind crime fighting machine, and I—"

"Wait." Ted held up a hand. "Booster said you couldn't drive the Bug? Booster?"

"Yeah. So lame."

Ted laughed. "The guy got me turned into a chipmunk on another planet, and he decides you don't get to drive the Bug. You have got to be kidding."

"Totally not—he turned you into a chipmunk?"

"Oh, come on, he must have told—"

"Believe me, I'd have remembered a story about you getting turned into a chipmunk. You've been my total superhero inspiration." The scarab asked if Jaime would like him to open some vents to cool his blushing face.

Ted grinned. "Inspiration? Really?"

"Totally." The scarab asked if Jaime was certain he didn’t want a vent or two open, as the temperature on his face seemed to have increased again.

Ted's grin got wider. "Cool." There was a crash over on the far side of the worksite. Ted and Jaime both swung around to try to see what was happening. Ted looked back at Jaime. "Where are my manners? Hi, I'm Blue Beetle. I'm here to help you bust bad guys." He held out his hand.

"Hey, I'm Blue Beetle, too," Jaime said, shaking his hand. "I'm all about busting bad guys."

"Well, your town, your bad guys," Ted said with a wave of his hand. "Lead the way."

  
**Kord Enterprises: Chicago is Happy to Host Senior Trips from Across the Country!**  
"This sucks," Paco said under his breath as he, Brenda, and Jaime walked into the lobby of Gotham Towers. “What kind of senior trip includes getting stuck in a conference room learning about business practices?”

“The good kind,” Brenda replied before Jaime could say the same. The scarab flashed in his head, and Jaime fell back a step. Paco and Brenda glanced at him, then fell into step in front of him, keeping him covered in case he did something weird.

The scarab was quietly but insistently telling Jaime to look up. Farther up. No, farther up. Jaime craned his head all the way back and nearly toppled over. “Where?” he snapped under his breath.

“Teacher’s spotted us, Jaime,” Paco said out of the side of his mouth. “She’s coming over.”

“Hold on,” Jaime muttered, trying to concentrate on what the scarab was trying to get him to look at. There was a sudden rush of air. “Down!” Jaime yelled, knocking Brenda and Paco to the ground. He still hadn’t seen what the scarab was pointing out, but he knew the sound of that air rush. The ceiling was about to collapse.

The sound of disintegrating masonry punctured Jaime’s argument with the scarab. It was trying to get him armored, and Jaime was fighting as hard as he could to stay in his regular clothes. “I can’t,” he muttered. He looked up. The ceiling had collapsed twenty feet ahead of them. No one looked hurt, but Jaime could see more cracks in the ceiling. The whole thing was coming down. He rolled off of Brenda and Paco and pushed them towards the door. “Get out!” he yelled. “It’s collapsing!”

“Be careful!” Brenda called over her shoulder while she and Paco started grabbing other students and pushing them out the door.

The scarab screeched for armor, and Jaime felt the edges of it coming up through his skin before he forced it back down. “We’re in public,” he hissed. “Just help me find people.” The zoom function came on in his right eye. His left eye showed him the floor plan, people marked with red dots. The dust was starting to get thick. “Who’s in the most danger?” Three of the dots got larger, and Jaime turned towards them.

He felt another waft of air, and he jumped. The scarab pushed his jets out of the bottom of his feet, and propelled him forward. He hooked his arm around someone’s waist and pulled him to the side just before the ceiling crashed in on the spot the man had been standing.

“How did you get over here?” The man asked as he coughed in the raised dust. Jaime didn’t know him. The scarab identified him as a teacher from one of the other groups.

“Adrenaline,” Jaime answered belatedly. “If you were a car, you’d be over my head.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “You should be—”

“Mr. Reardon!” someone called, and the man turned towards a teenage girl in jeans and a T-shirt. She ran over and grabbed his arm. “How do we get out of here?”

“I’m sure…” Mr. Reardon looked around, and Jaime did the same. All the exits were covered in rubble.

“Scarab?” Jaime asked under his breath. The scarab suggested armoring up and blowing a hole in the wall, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble. “When did you learn sarcasm?” Jaime asked.

“What?” Mr. Reardon asked. “Did you say—”

Jaime felt another waft of air and pushed Mr. Reardon and his student toward a section of the room that was already collapsed. He turned to see where the waft had come from and saw the rubble floating in mid-air in a bright blue bubble. “I know that bubble,” he said.

“What?” Mr. Reardon repeated. “Son, did you get hit in the head?”

A small, winged rectangle flew into the building. It stopped six inches from Jaime’s face, and Jaime twitched as the scarab did some sort of squeeze-pain combination at the scan. “It’s Skeets,” Jaime said under his breath. “Chill out.” The scarab loosened its grip, and Jaime rubbed the back of his neck.

“Help is on the way,” Skeets said and flew off to the next group of people.

Mr. Reardon and his student watched Skeets. Jaime looked up at the holes in the ceiling. He could see Booster off to one side, slowly and carefully lowering the pile of rubble to the ground. And where Booster was—

“Have you out in a minute, folks!” Ted— _Blue Beetle_ , Jaime reminded himself—called down from the hole. “We’re just securing the rest of the roof!”

“What happened?” Someone across the room yelled.

“Daily supervillain check-in!” Ted responded. “Don’t worry, we got him.” He turned away and yelled something Jaime couldn’t make out. A few seconds later, he jumped from the roof, to Booster’s force field-encased rubble, to the floor. There was a large white box in his hand. “Who needs first aid?” A few people raised their hands. Ted looked around, assessing the situation. He spotted Jaime, and Jaime was pretty sure, from the ways his eyes widened, that he was raising his eyebrows. “You,” Ted said, pointing at him. “Can you give me a hand?”

“Sure,” Jaime answered, walking over. “I’m Jaime,” he said, and he could see the smile Ted was trying not to let show.

“Blue Beetle.”

The shook hands, and the scarab hissed in Jaime’s brain. “What?” Jaime asked. The scarab grumbled that they were the Beetle, not some— “I wouldn’t be without him,” Jaime said. “So be quiet.”

Ted’s smile had gone from hidden to full-blown. “Blow to the head?” he asked, all innocence.

“I’m fine,” Jaime replied, grinning in return. “Where do we start?”

  
**Kord Enterprises Summer Internship: All Students May Apply**  
The lobby was done up in shades of blue and black. Jaime sat in a padded blue chair with no armrests and tried not to fidget. He wasn't sure he actually wanted to spend the summer making copies and fetching coffee, but internships meant scholarship money and work experience, so here he was, trying not to sweat through a button-down shirt and one of his dad's only ties, waiting to have an interview.

The scarab tweaked as the door to reception opened, and Jaime sent back a message telling it to shut up. When it tweaked a second time, Jaime nearly tweaked himself when he saw who was walking out to greet him.

_Don't call him Blue Beetle. Don't call him Blue Beetle._

Ted stood in the doorway wearing loafers, jeans and a blue button down shirt. He had a clipboard in his left hand, his right extended towards Jaime. "Ted Kord. You must be Jaime Reyes."

 _Don't call him Blue Beetle. Don't call him Blue Beetle._ Jaime blinked as he realized Ted was watching him, amusement in his eyes. The scarab laughed in his head and reminded him to shake hands. Jaime fumbled as he reached for Ted's hand. "It's nice to meet you." He had to bite back the urge to laugh in embarrassment. He had assumed Ted wouldn't conduct the interviews himself. Why come all the way to El Paso to okay the guys who were going to be doing the filing for the local branch?

"If you'll come this way, we'll get started." Ted gestured with the clipboard and led the way down the hall to a small, windowless office. "Sit, please," he invited Jaime, pointing to a gray padded chair.

Jaime sat. He cleared his throat but couldn't think of what to say. "It's nice to meet you, sir."

Ted grinned and reached into the pocket of his shirt. He pulled out a plastic rectangle the size of a flash drive and pressed it with his thumb. Ted gave Jaime an apologetic grimace when Jaime rubbed at his ears. "Sorry. Did I freak out the bug?"

"Yeah." Jaime worked his jaw back and forth, trying to stop the ringing in his ears. "Yeah, yeah, I get it," he muttered to the scarab, and it quieted down.

"It's a sound proofer," Ted explained. "Works in closed rooms up to fifteen by fifteen."

It took Jaime another moment to catch the meaning. His head was still pounding a little. "Why would you bring—" Jaime closed his mouth and raised his eyebrows. "Did you come down here just to interview me?"

"I came here to interview everyone," Ted said. "I'm looking for a few people who would want to spend the summer in Chicago or Gotham or Metropolis, so you may want to avoid saying anything nice about this place." He grinned.

Jaime grinned in return. "Oh. Cool."

"You've got good grades, excellent letters of reference, and I have first-hand experience of your work ethic," Ted continued. He put the clipboard on the desk and smirked at Jaime. "Wanna work for Kord this summer? Have the world's most menial job?"

"I'd like to stay in El Paso," Jaime replied. "If you can use me here."

Ted’s smile got wider. “I thought you might say that.” He stood up and held out his hand. “The El Paso office could always use an extra coffee jockey.”

“I can get coffee,” Jaime said, and they shook on it.


End file.
